Domesticity
by jelliclerose
Summary: Sort of a 'what happened next' that comes back in a few years after the ending of the show. Rated for language, but it's nothing you've not heard before if you've watched Green Wing is it! hehe
1. Chapter 1

So...I've been rewatching my Green Wing DVDs recently and somehow I just couldn't settle after watching the special and felt in desperate need of a little what-happened-next and some self-indulgent fluff. So here it is. Enjoy the Mac and Caroline love...

Malinda.x

* * *

She rolled over and groaned into the pillows, only half-aware of the fact she'd pulled his pillows to her, however all too aware that they smelt of his shampoo. The sheets rustled loudly beneath her as she fidgeted, everything seemingly conspiring against the possibility of allowing her to forget the reality of her situation. The moonlight crept under the curtains and danced across the floorboards towards her so she buried her face deeper in the pillows to avoid it, being met with another wave of his scent and almost wanting to punch the pillows because of it. She squeezed her eyes shut tighter but it was no use, within moments she found herself sobbing silently into the darkness. She couldn't get used to sleeping alone, not after the few years she'd had of sleeping with him by her side. It had only taken one week for her to completely fall apart.  
"Pull yourself together, Caroline," she choked but the tears refused to dissipate. She was scared and alone and the only man capable of soothing her wasn't there. Why did he always have to know how to make her feel so capable? Couldn't he have at least had the decency to leave her with some instructions?

Just as she finally managed to compose herself, the bedroom door creaked open and she sniffed, sitting up.  
"Hey you," she whispered in as bright a way as she could manage, sniffing and wiping hurriedly at her eyes as her tiny companion clambered up on to the bed. Lola Macartney yawned sleepily back at her as she crawled across the duvet and scrambled in to the crook of her mother's open arm. Caroline couldn't help the smile her daughter provoked in her and she looked down at the four-year-old's prettily pale face with affection. There was so much of her father in her that sometimes Caroline had to wonder what the girl actually got from her and she was slightly surprised that the miniature copy of her husband's features in the little girl's face didn't prompt a fresh onslaught of tears.  
"Mummy I can't sleep," Lola mumbled through another yawn and Caroline sighed.  
"Me neither sweetheart," she said, seeing no point in denying it. She stroked the little girl's hair, letting her mind wander to happier times as she and her daughter finally began to drift towards sleep.

-:-:-:-:-

_Doctor Caroline Macartney. It had been a year and she still couldn't stop smiling in disbelief as she thought it. The duvet rustled a little as she rolled over, and she held her breath a moment, trying to judge if he was awake or not. She was trying to concentrate on sleep but sleep was difficult when all she could think about was their day together. She smiled again, unable to stop herself. Their first wedding anniversary. Neither of them had really expected Mac would be alive for it; as frightening as it was to say, they both knew he really shouldn't be. They were doctors, both of them good ones too, they knew it made very little sense for him to make it past a month. Yet here they were, one whole year together. Alive together. And of course, Mac being far more cunning than she had ever been, he had managed to catch her unawares, planning everything before she'd even realised the date had arrived._

"_What are you smiling about?" a gentle voice interrupted her thoughts and she blushed a little. He could always make her blush, often with very little effort on his part. Sometimes she felt as though he knew the mess going on inside her head and was almost embarrassed by it. She turned over in the bed, immediately coming face to face with that amused smirk of his. He was bright in the darkness, everything about him was bright. It made no sense that he could be dying, not someone like Mac, someone so vibrant and...well, alive. His blue eyes glimmered in the moonlight which crept beneath the bedroom curtains and she felt her breath catch a little in her throat as he tucked rogue strands of her unruly hair in to an order that even she didn't understand. As far as she was concerned, that was true love; a man who knew what the hell her hair was supposed to be doing with itself.  
"I know you Doctor Macartney, if I tell you what I'm thinking you'll only tease me," she retorted and he chuckled lightly, pulling her over to him. His arms were safe and warm, his chest strong without being daunting, and she pressed herself close to him, burying her face in the fabric of his pyjama top.  
"I won't, I promise. Just this once," he told her quietly. She felt the vibration of his voice and closed her eyes, powerless.  
"Honestly? I don't know how I got here," she admitted quietly. He smiled, kissing the top of her head and squeezing her slightly.  
"Couldn't tease you for that if I tried."  
"Why's that?" she frowned.  
"I don't really know how it happened either," he explained softly and she blushed again.  
"Soppy git," she managed to tease and he laughed, kissing her cheek.  
"Shut up and get some sleep," he smiled, leaning back slightly but making no move to free her from his arms. She smiled tiredly and felt her eyelids start to droop as he left her fall asleep against the rise and fall of his chest._


	2. Chapter 2

She found herself trailing her hands along the tops of picture frames, staring at the memories captured with a distant expression. She had to make a conscious effort to stop doing it and she only walked away from the occupation due to an unnerving feeling that she had become a sad heroine in an overblown movie. Turning away, she shuffled in to the kitchen, pouring out two bowls of an extremely unhealthy-looking cereal. The kitchen felt a lot emptier without him humming about, piece of toast clutched in his mouth, setting down breakfast in front of his sleepily bewildered wife and talking nonsense with their daughter. He could cope with mornings. She couldn't.

"Morning mummy," a small voice broke in to her thoughts and she turned from the counter to smile at Lola softly. Her hair was mussed and tangled and she squinted tiredly around the kitchen as if she too felt a little lost without Mac around. Lola was normally better at mornings, often babbling mercilessly at Caroline before she'd had her coffee, much to Mac's amusement.  
"Morning sweetheart," Caroline smiled, flopping in to her chair as her daughter clambered in to the chair next to her and tucked in to her breakfast. Framed in the morning sunlight Lola looked even more like her father than she had the night before, her strawberry-blonde hair falling in soft curls around her wide, open face, her blue eyes slowly getting brighter as she became more widely awake, there was even, Caroline noticed, a trace of a mischievous smirk just touching the corners of her lips. Caroline sighed fondly, watching her daughter a moment. Even at the age of four it was clear the little girl shared her father's personality almost exactly and Caroline couldn't be sure if that was down to shameless corruption on Mac's part or shameless encouragement on hers. Or maybe it was all in the genes. The past week had made Caroline realise, however, that it was something important, something which should be preserved at all costs. It was nice having his mischief always with her, not that it was an entirely selfish desire, it was nice for Lola too. She could always know her father that way, always understand him, no matter what the future held for them.  
"Mummy eat," Lola scolded, shaking Caroline from her thoughts. She blinked and focused and saw her daughter looking at her with confused blue eyes. Poor thing, she didn't understand why her mother was slowly losing her mind.

-:-:-:-:-

_He had a habit of taking her breath away, even when she wasn't quite awake enough to realise he was doing it. There he stood, a piece of toast clutched between his teeth, baby balanced on his hip, buzzing about the kitchen to the tune of inane radio banter in the very picture of the perfect family Caroline had never really believed she could have. She supposed he found it even harder to believe than she did, all things considered. But he did a better job of hiding it._

_After a moment he noticed her, hoving in the doorway, her eyes still half-closed, and he smiled at her with faint amusement, putting his toast down on his plate.  
"Morning," he said and she blinked, looking over at him blearily before shuffling the final distance towards the chair and falling into it.  
"Mm," Caroline managed to mumble in response. He didn't pass comment, instead smothering a smirk and placing a plate of toast in front of her, next to a pot of chocolate spread which was already before her on the table. He bent to press a quick kiss to her cheek.  
"Eat," he instructed gently then he straightened up and left the kitchen._

_He returned after a few minutes, minus Lola, and leant himself against the kitchen counter, eating his toast quietly until his wife had come around sufficiently to make conversation. Caroline couldn't deny she was grateful to be allowed the time to pull round and she smiled at him sleepily in thanks.  
_

"_We, need to talk," he began as she came to the end of her first slice of toast. As he spoke he turned to begin work on her morning coffee and Caroline hoped his change of focus meant he wouldn't notice that her heartbeat had become the tiniest bit faster.  
"About what exactly?" she asked him, her voice changing pitch slightly. When she turned to look at him she realised he hadn't missed a thing and there was a look of amusement playing on his face.  
"Don't panic," he chuckled, retrieving the sugar from the cupboard, his glittering eyes meeting hers and instantly reassuring her.  
"That's easy for you to say, you're the one who knows what exactly we need to talk about," she pointed out, taking a bite of what was now little more than a dollop of chocolate spread on an edible plate._  
"_I have to go to a wedding next weekend," he explained, coming over to the table and setting down her coffee. He held a mug of tea in his other hand and he sipped it, waiting for her to process the information.  
"Best man?" she asked after a moment, reaching for the coffee mug.  
"Yup. Well, joint-best-man, but you can't win 'em all," he smiled.  
"Do I have to go?" she asked, wrinkling her nose at the thought.  
"Well…not if you don't want to. It would mean a weekend in Scotland."  
"Scotland?" she frowned, wrinkling her nose even more.  
"Don't sound quite so disgusted," he laughed and she took another gulp of coffee as she considered which was worse; a weekend without Mac or a wedding in Scotland. She considered all the opportunities she could have to make a show of herself in front of her husband's friends that a wedding could bring and quickly made up her mind..  
"I'll stay here I think. Fewer chances for your friends to section you for marrying me," she sighed heavily and he smiled.  
"My friends wouldn't section me. You, maybe, but not me."  
"Bastard," she protested with very little seriousness and he chuckled.  
"Anyway, I thought you might not like the idea. Which is why we need to talk, actually…"  
"What?" Caroline frowned slightly and he smiled back at her knowingly.  
"Well, if I'm in Scotland, then someone is going to have to make sure Lola doesn't do herself an injury trying to wake you up," he smirked. At first her brow furrowed and then, slowly, her expression changed as realisation dawned.  
"Oh God! Am I that heavy a sleeper?" she gasped as Mac smiled amusedly into his tea. Perhaps most new mothers would have been confused by the fact that their baby hadn't cried in the night more than the odd night since being brought home. She suspected, actually, that there was no perhaps about it. And then her thoughts turned to Mac's part in this. Perhaps most new fathers would have woken their wife up to get her to see to the baby. But not Mac. Somehow Caroline, of all people, had managed to find herself a husband who was willing to simply get on with it without saying. He woke up every night, how many times she obviously was clueless, and saw to their baby without making a single attempt to disturb his wife's sleep and without making any complaints the next morning. In fact, far from complaining, he was up before her each day. He was in the kitchen every morning, baby's bottle done and breakfast ready and waiting, just like it had been for the past two years._  
"_Are you real? Because if you're not you're really going to have to tell me so that I can get myself medical attention. From a proper doctor I mean, not you or Guy," she said quietly, putting a hand to Mac's cheek. How was he not tired and pissed off with her? There was always a risk, when you married a man with a diagnosed terminal condition, that you could go insane. After all, there was a good chance Mac could have died the day after they were married. But the day after had passed, then a week, then month. Then a year, two, Lola was born. Caroline did often wonder when the alarm would go off and she'd wake up in bed alone, Mac gone, maybe even Lola wouldn't be real. Her life, her family, was bordering far too closely on the dream territory, Mac most of all. He had to be a hologram._

_He didn't answer her and chose instead to kiss the palm of her hand before bending across a little so as to press a kiss against her lips.  
"Well holograms can't do that," she muttered to herself, blushing when he laughed.  
"Should I pretend I didn't hear that?" he asked her gently and she smiled.  
"Internal monologue…probably ought to remember to keep that thing internal," she said, looking away. She could feel his amused gaze across the table but he kindly changed the subject.  
"Well, unless I take Lola with me, you're going to have to devise some way of sleeping a little less deeply," he shrugged after a moment, sipping his tea and leaning back in his chair. Caroline looked back up at him then and sighed.  
"And why exactly can't you take her with you?" she said hopefully, knowing full well that it was a plan that would never work.  
"Well aside from the obvious, if she's anything like you, she'll cry at all the wrong moments and congratulate the wrong people," Mac teased and she attempted to glare at him over her coffee mug. The glare failed and a smile somehow found its way to her lips instead, she couldn't exactly deny that her track-record with weddings was poor. Only her own had gone well for her, and that, she thought with a slight stab of anxiousness, had gone so well that it had spilled over into the life she had led after it and she was starting to wonder when the good fortune would wear out._


	3. Chapter 3

Clutching a copy of the Radio Times and a mug of hot chocolate Caroline shuffled into the living room, ready for a cosy night in. She hadn't actually done much with her day. She'd worried a bit, been miserable for a lot and kept Lola entertained when called upon to do so. Nevertheless she felt in need of the rest, if only to distract herself from being miserable with the dreadful TV shows she was secretly addicted to.

As she moved over to the sofa she spotted Lola, stood at the window with her nose all but pressed up against the glass. Her heart sank.  
"Sweetheart, what are you doing?" she asked gently and Lola turned, looking over at Caroline with wide eyes. Wide, sad eyes, Caroline thought with guilt.  
"Waiting for Daddy to come home," Lola told her and Caroline winced. What part of her had allowed them to bring a child into this? She drew in a steadying breath and then opened her eyes again, looking at Lola thoughtfully. Maybe they shouldn't have brought a child into it, maybe it had been wrong of them, maybe it had been selfish, or worse, thoughtless. But Caroline couldn't see that, all she could see was how happy Lola had made Mac and how Lola's hopeful blue eyes made her feel suddenly hopeful herself.  
"Sweetheart, come away from the window and come and watch telly with me."  
"But Mummy, when is he coming home? Why won't you tell me?" Lola pressed. The question was innocent enough but Caroline's already fragile heart couldn't cope with it. Lola watched her expectantly, thinking it was the simplest question in the world. Caroline was surprised the question hadn't come sooner. But no, it had waited. And it had waited just long enough that Caroline was almost sleeping at night again. Or at least she had been. No more of that now, she suspected.

As she searched for an answer to her daughter's question, another thought suddenly occurred to her and she frowned.  
"Have you had dinner yet?" she asked and Lola was instantly distracted.  
"Nope," Lola smiled, shaking her head enthusiastically. Caroline winced; she could be an atrocious parent sometimes, she thought.  
"Come on, let's choose something then shall we," she sighed with a small smile and Lola nodded, beginning to walk across. Then suddenly, she stopped.  
"Can we have take away?" she asked sweetly. Caroline bit her lip. That was Mac's job.  
"Sorry sweetheart, not tonight."

-:-:-:-:-

_Caroline turned her head as Mac entered the room, exchanging a brief smile with him before he was mobbed by an excited toddler that had spent a whole day missing him. He pulled her gently into his arms, letting her cling on to his leather jacket before coming further into the room.  
"Hello trouble," he smiled as Lola laughed joyfully.  
"How would you know she was any trouble, you've been out all day!" Caroline said with a smile. She didn't really mind that he was late back and he knew it, smirking across at her without remorse.  
"Who said I was talking to the toddler?" he teased, bending down and kissing her on the cheek as she gave him a playful punch on the arm.  
"You think you're so clever," she said with a shake of her head. He simply smiled at her, starting to shrug himself free of his jacket, balancing Lola carefully.  
"Enjoy your day off?" he asked and Caroline stretched overdramatically.  
"Blissful," she smiled, leaning back against the sofa cushions and looking up at him with as innocent a smile as she could manage. Mac rolled his eyes.  
"Sure, rub it in, if that helps you feel better about yourself," he laughed, hanging up his jacket and letting Lola pull happily at fistfuls of his t-shirt.  
"Did you and Guy have fun?" she asked. She was bordering on cruelty now, she knew, but she couldn't help it. And when had he had mercy with her?  
"Oh a blast," Mac told her dryly. He'd lost count of how many times Guy had been thoughtful enough to suggest that he could drop dead at any minute. After almost four years, somehow, Guy still couldn't resist the tactless remark or five in theatre. Mac suspected it was Guy's way of coping with the possibility of Mac dying, though neither of them would ever talk seriously enough to establish if that was true. The whole thing still scared Guy, perhaps it scared Guy more than anyone, and it was something he more than anyone else seemed to dwell on, despite the fact that even Geoffrey seemed to be beginning to question what the test results were telling him.. Mac had been in Guy's life longer than anyone else; no one else would put up with him for as long as Mac had, no one else would stand up to him the way Mac did. All this Mac knew, but that didn't make it any less tiring dealing with Guy on his own all day._  
"_Anyway, what would you like for dinner?" Mac asked Caroline, sitting himself down on the arm of the sofa. Caroline felt a stab of guilt and she bit her lip.  
"Shouldn't I be asking you that? It doesn't seem fair somehow…do you want me to cook?" she suggested and Mac rolled his eyes.  
"I think we're all safest if I'm the one in the kitchen, don't you?" he joked and she pouted a little, eventually being forced to smile. He was right, after all._

_Mac gave Lola a soft kiss on the top of her head, gently setting her down next to Caroline on the sofa.  
"How about we get a take away, is that a fair compromise?" he suggested, raising his eyebrows enquiringly. Caroline smiled.  
"Definitely!" she nodded.  
"Well in that case, why don't you two go and pick a menu whilst I have a shower," Mac said glancing down at Lola's beaming face to make sure all were satisfied with the plan._  
"_Come on sweetheart, let's go and choose dinner," Caroline said softly, taking Lola in to her arms as Mac disappeared in the direction of the bathroom. It was a unique take on domesticity but she enjoyed it more than anything else she had ever known._


	4. Chapter 4

She hated Sundays. She'd always hated Sundays. They were so gloomy and their unfortunate position in front of Monday meant that Sundays were very depressing, doom-filled days. In her opinion anyway. But leave didn't end until Tuesday, so this week it was Monday which felt doom-full to her. Which, all put together, meant she had spent a long forty-eight hours beneath her own personal raincloud.

Flopping down on to the sofa she let out a sigh, collapsing in to the cushions and trying to think about everything but him. Which was hard at the best of times, never mind now. Sitting in their house, surrounded by pictures of them, memories they had shared and made together. She debated turning on the TV but somehow daytime programming didn't appeal to her; as many problems as the people on Jeremy Kyle had, for once they still wouldn't succeed in making her feel any better about her own problems.

She was shaken from her thoughts by the shrill ringing of the phone and she reached across to grab the handset from where it had been discarded after a far-too-long phone conversation with her mother. She hurriedly pressed answer then instantly wished she hadn't bothered.  
"Oh, it's you," she said dully as Guy's voice came down the line and crackled in her ear.  
"Don't sound so disappointed!" he protested but she simply rolled her eyes. She didn't want to talk to him right now. He wasn't going to be comforting. He had been, at first. There was a decent human being deep down inside him, she knew that better than most, and it had surfaced, briefly, in her hour of need. But whilst she had remained needy, Guy had not succeeded in remaining tactful.  
"Of course I'm alone. You know I'm alone, you wouldn't have bothered calling if I…don't you dare call her a brat…no sprog is not any better. Anyway, no, she's not here…look Guy, what do you want?" she said crossly, losing patience as Guy The Friend was clearly not the Guy phoning her. Guy The Twat continued to buzz in her ear and she felt sure she might gag if he kept talking.  
"I don't want that sort of company, thank you Guy. You do realise it's only been three weeks…no Guy, that is not a possibility…" she interrupted with anger. He kept talking, suggesting things and putting his foot in every hole, reopening worries she'd been working to suppress.  
"Look just fuck off will you!" she finally snapped and she hung up sharply before curling up on the sofa and crying into a cushion.

-:-:-:-:-

_Mac appeared in the living room with Lola in tow. She had taken to being his shadow whenever she could be and Caroline hadn't the heart to be jealous, choosing instead to marvel at the site the two of them made. Both of them were hers in their own ways and she couldn't ask for more than that from them.. Lola adored her dad and, Caroline supposed, to a three-year-old, a tall, joking man who showered you with hugs and smiles was the perfect source of entertainment and affection. Mac handed Lola her coat, pulling on his jacket then kneeling down and helping her with hers whilst Caroline turned back to stare dolefully into the mirror, arranging and rearranging her hair._

_Coming to stand behind her, Mac gently placed his hands on her shoulders. His touch relaxed her and she leant back against his chest, closing her eyes. She could feel his breath brushing against her ear as he tilted his head down slightly.  
"Who exactly is it that you're so determined to impress?" he asked playfully.  
"Me?" she suggested, not really knowing why she did fuss so much about her hair anymore. She knew why she'd done it a few years ago, but that reason was stood behind her right now, convinced she didn't need to worry. Smiling, he gave her a brief kiss on the cheek before turning and stooping to scoop Lola into his arms and the little girl happily slung her own arms around his neck as he lifted her off the ground. At that moment, the phone cut through the morning rush and Caroline turned around from the mirror to look at it with a small frown.  
"Do you want me to…?" she trailed off, looking at Mac.  
"If you wouldn't mind," he smiled earnestly, his hands clearly full as he went off to find his keys._

_When she heard the voice on the other end, Caroline almost dropped the phone. Her heart froze whilst at the same time lodging itself somewhere between her mouth and her chest and no amount of swallowing could shift it.  
"Who is it?" Mac asked, coming back in to the room and Caroline knew that he could guess from her face that it wasn't someone either of them would want to speak to.  
"Geoffrey," she said nervously, offering him the phone. Even Mac found it hard to stay calm at the idea of Geoffrey calling him at home.  
"Do you want to take this one," he said quietly, nodding his head towards Lola, and Caroline nodded back, taking Lola into her arms and forcing a smile as she carried her out of the door towards the car._

_When Mac eventually reappeared, he actually seemed to be smiling and Caroline couldn't quite believe that that was an expression news from Geoffrey was capable of creating. Turning from Lola, she looked at him expectantly as he walked over to her, tilting his head to one side with a slightly thoughtful smile.  
"How much trust do you have in Singapore?" he asked her and she blinked.  
"What?"  
"Nothing, I'll tell you about it at work."  
"But Mac..." Caroline began to protest, but then she followed his gaze towards their daughter, sitting watching the two of them talk.  
"Bye sweetheart," Mac smiled at Lola then he turned to press a kiss to Caroline's cheek before he left. Caroline watched him disappear on his bike, a frown on her features. She wished that Geoffrey had waited until they got to work so she didn't have to be left in the dark. Not that she blamed Mac for not telling her. Lola didn't know about all of that and they thought it was best that it stayed that way. It wasn't worth explaining it to her; it wasn't something she could grasp properly at her age and it wasn't something she should have to think about. She was happier not knowing anything could go wrong until such a time when it actually went wrong. And Caroline was still hoping that time would never come._


	5. Chapter 5

Work was not as distracting as she had hoped it would be, she decided as she sank further down in to her chair. The fact that so much of their relationship was tied up in the workings of the hospital meant that the workplace was almost an extension of home and there were excuses to notice his absence everywhere, not least when in surgery. Even Guy was strangely quiet; the two of them weren't used to theatre without Mac.

Cheerful whistling caught Caroline's attention and she looked behind her, knowing only one man who ever moved around the hospital in such a jovial fashion. Sure enough Boyce entered the room pausing for a brief conversation with Martin and grabbing himself a drink from the fridge. After a moment the tall blonde spotted Caroline and made his way across, giving Martin a salute of goodbye as he did so. Caroline smiled at him, wondering, as she often did, if he found it odd now ranking higher than Martin, though she reached the same conclusion as she always did; Boyce was far too laid back to let anything that trivial bother him. In a lot of ways Boyce was like Mac, she supposed. But then everyone she met reminded her of him today.

"Are you sure you should be in today?" Boyce asked her kindly as he sat down in the chair next to her, smiling sympathetically. She sighed, slumping back down in her seat.  
"Not entirely. I thought it might take my mind off it but…" she began, then something else caught her attention.  
"…so I'm a bit lost. Is he assisting or am I filling in for him? Or is it just a…"  
"Are you filling in for Mac?" she asked the unfamiliar man who had been speaking.  
"Excuse me?" he frowned. She rolled her eyes but didn't let him see.  
"Doctor Macartney, are you filling in for Doctor Macartney?" she sighed impatiently. Who didn't know Mac as Mac?  
"Yes…"  
"Then I think I know what the problem is. Doctor Macartney's listed as assisting, right?"  
"Right…"  
"Well, that's me. I'm his wife…Caroline. Nice to meet you…"  
"Oh, call me Simon! Sorry about that…it did look a bit odd though," Simon chuckled in a friendly way which, for some reason, made Caroline feel a little angry towards him.  
"Easy tiger," Boyce remarked with gentle teasing, noticing the anger instantly and deciding to dull it before it had chance to settle. Who knew what damage it could do if she went into theatre already raging with the cover-doctor. Maybe Boyce was right, she thought, it couldn't be entirely wise being at work today.

-:-:-:-:-

"_Doctor Macartney?" came a voice. Both Mac and Caroline looked up and the nurse looked a little bewildered. Mac smiled at her, stepping in to help.  
"Which one?" he asked and Caroline smirked slightly. The nurse shrugged.  
"Whichever one of you Mrs Jenkins is likely to be demanding to see?" she suggested. Mac pulled a face and glanced across at Caroline.  
"That would be you," he said, knowing it wasn't true. Caroline laughed, rolling her eyes.  
"Oh no. Mrs Jenkins is definitely demanding you," she smiled. Mac groaned.  
"Oh alright. Tell her I'm coming in a minute," Mac sighed, turning back to smile at the nurse who nodded and promptly disappeared.  
"Suck it up Mister Popularity. My patients all hate me."  
"I try my best to seem incompetent, but then Guy will turn up and suddenly they love me again."  
"Have you tried Martin?"  
"Worse, they die when I hand them over to him."  
"Hmm, maybe you'd better go then."  
"Probably for the best. I'll see you in theatre," Mac smiled, leaning across the arm of his chair and capturing her lips. She allowed him to draw out the kiss, enjoying the pressure of his lips against hers and subconsciously leaning closer and closer towards him._

_When at last he disappeared, she sank back in to her chair and slowly slid down it, a smile on her face. It was moments like that that stopped her worrying about the future._


	6. Chapter 6

Four weeks. It had been four whole weeks now. But the moment the distraction of work was done with she was back to wanting to cry. It was only for Lola's sake that she hadn't allowed herself to totally lose the plot, and indeed, it was only because of Lola that she still managed to raise the odd smile. As she made her way out to the car park, the street lights reflecting harshly against the wet tarmac and hurting her eyes, she almost succumbed to the tears she'd been suppressing so well. But not quite. As she finally managed to find her keys in the depths of her bag her mobile began to ring and she delved back into her bag, rummaging around and eventually retrieving it just as she arrived at her car.  
"Hello?" she sighed. The minute she heard the voice at the other end, her keys smashed to the floor.  
"Hey you."  
"Oh my God, how are you? Is everything ok? How are you doing?" she babbled, worry and happiness rushing over her at once, stumbling over each other and tripping up over her tongue as she spoke. There were tears in her eyes again then but somehow she kept them at bay still, swallowing them down and biting her lip.  
"Never been better, I promise. Now, how are you holding up?"  
"Badly…is everything…I mean…" she stammered.  
"Everything's ok. Now come on, you were saying about you?"  
"I'm fine, I'm fine," she dismissed.  
"Caroline."  
"Ok, I'm not fine. Or...I've not been fine. But I'm much better now, I'm much better for hearing your voice…how come you couldn't call?"  
"You know what Singaporeans are like for rules. I think they might have refused me the surgery if they thought I was using a mobile anywhere near the hospital."  
"So where are you now?" Caroline asked, desperate to know where he was, even more desperate to know how soon she could see him again.  
"Outside."  
"Outside? Outside where?"  
"The hospital."  
"And everything's...everything's ok?"  
"How many times, everything's fine," he said with a soft chuckle and she could just picture the soft smile on his lips.  
"When will I get my proof though?" she demanded, hoping to mask her desperation with banter.  
"Proof?"  
"That this is really happening."  
"Oh, proof. Well I don't know, Caroline. Why don't you see what happens if you just...turn round." Her brow furrowed. Turn around? She didn't even want to think he could mean…she scolded herself for even thinking it, she shouldn't get her hopes up like that. Biting her lip, she took a deep breath and turned. Nothing could have prepared her for the sight she saw. There, leaning against a pillar just outside the doors, stood Mac. Just as bright and alive as he always was, but somehow more so. Before she even had time to think her feet were moving and she ran towards him, not knowing how long it took her to remember hang up but knowing it took her far too long to reach him. She flung herself on him, relief filling every inch of her as his arms wrapped around her firmly. There was no holding back her tears now. One hand was pressed reassuringly into her back, the other was buried in her hair. She stayed pressed close to his chest, listening to his heartbeat, letting it slowly persuade her that he was here. That he was ok. Better than ok. None of the 'risks' had taken him away from her, he was here and he was hers. No doubts, no uncertainties, no gnawing fears. He was hers, not _just for now_ but for a long time to come.

She looked up at him, letting him crush his lips against hers gently. She savoured the kiss, committing it to memory as the moment she knew that everything really was going to be ok.  
"I missed you," she murmured against his lips.  
"Worth it though," he whispered back and she smiled up at him as he tentatively brushed the tears from the corners of her eyes.  
"Worth it if I get to keep you," she nodded and he kissed her gently, briefly, once more.  
"Come on trouble, let's go and get Lola."  
"Oh she's going to be so happy to see you."  
"Happy as you?"  
"Almost. But you'll think she's cuter."  
"Oh, I don't know, you're not so bad."  
"Can we have a take away tonight?"  
"Well now you're just taking liberties!"  
"I know."  
"Ok then, just this once."


End file.
